Audubon Society hosts lecture on Tilapia
If political reform is not your area of interest, tonight the Belize Audubon Society invites you to a presentation on an issue of environmental concern: Tilapia. According to presenter Peter Esselman this fish, which originated in Africa, poses a major threat to Belize’s fresh waterways. Esselman says the fish is popular with commercial growers because it grows rapidly and breeds constantly, but these same characteristics spell trouble for other species in the Belize River, New River, Rio Hondo and lagoons such as the one at Crooked Tree. While Tilapia is no longer being raised in Belize by those involved with aquaculture, Esselman says it was in the past and some of the fish are still coming in from Mexico. His lecture called, “Coming to a River Near You Soon” begins at seven thirty at the Marine Terminal in Belize City. Peter Esselman is completing a Master’s Degree in Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development at the University of Georgia. He has been studying Belizean natural history since 1993.